Hunting Moa (MTG Card) Hunting Moa Creature — Bird Beast Echo (2)(Green) (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.) When Hunting Moa enters the battlefield or is put into a graveyard from play, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Add to collection Vengeful Birds 8 months ago I like your deck! Aven Mimeomancer is one of my all time faves. I like adding green for Birds of Paradise for acceleration and Hunting Moa for even more proliferation. BoP into Mimeomancer is a pretty fast clock. Obviously, three colors makes the mana much more expensive. Not sure if Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is worth it.

Something else to consider is that Vedalken AEthermage can Wizardcycle for Aven Mimeomancer , Kangee, Aerie Keeper AND Keeper of the Nine Gales which can let you trim the numbers on the guys that are bad in multiples like Kangee and Keeper and lets you do things like run a single Aven Mindcensor Bioshock (Heartless Biomancer) 1 year ago Also I was looking around for a replacement for Hunting Moa (It's really expensive for what it is), and I found Cytoplast Root-Kin . This card screams synergy to me, as you can just bounce counters around all the while Hardened Scales beefs them up. Another great card is Den Protector . Retrieve a card for 2 mana and get a 3/2 body for 1 mana (with Hardened Scales ) Bioshock (Heartless Biomancer) 1 year ago Hey kameenook . That may be a fair point.

The thinking on Heartless Summoning was the benefit it gives on subsequent cards, so a 1 mana Phyrexian Metamorph , 1 mana Hunting Moa , so your stacking multiple copies of biomancer v.quickly Bronzebeak Moa (Dragon's Maze) - Gatherer - Magic: The Gathering Bronzebeak Moa Community Rating: 3.785 / 5 (72 votes) Click here to view ratings and comments. Creature — Bird Card Text: Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Bronzebeak Moa gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Flavor Text: They fight for their home with more loyalty than any conscript. Watermark: Rare & Extinct Creatures - Moa & Elephant Bird ELEPHANT BIRD AND MOA ELEPHANT BIRD The Elephant Bird (Aepyornis maximus) inhabited the island of Madagascar, off the eastern coast of Africa. Madagascar was settled around 2000 years ago by African and Indonesian peoples. Legends of the giant roc (rukh) in Arab folklore were probably based on the elephant bird.

During the 9th century, Saracen and Indian traders visited Madagascar and other parts of the African coast and would have encountered these birds. In 1298, while imprisoned in Genoa, Marco Polo wrote his memoirs, covering 26 years of travel. In chapter 33, "Concerning the Island of Madagascar" he wrote that the Great Khan had sent him to investigate curious reports of giant birds. The Malagasy people had had contact with Arab traders over several centuries, but had fiercely resisted colonisation. The first Europeans to visit the island were the Portuguese in 1500. Dutch and French expeditions established coastal settlements after 1509, penetrating the interior 150 years later. In the 16th century, Dutch, Portuguese and French sailors returned from the Indian Ocean with huge eggs taken as curios. The French established a settlement in 1642, by which time the Elephant Bird had become very rare. The last one probably died in 1649.

The first French Governor of Madagascar and Director of the French East India Company, Étienne de Flacourt, wrote, in 1658, "vouropatra - a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places may not take it, it seeks the most lonely places". In the face of human hunters, the elephant bird was retreating to remoter regions. By 1700, it was gone forever. The elephant bird was the largest bird ever to have lived. It was a ratite, related to ostriches and emus, though it was unlikely to have been a swift runner. It had massive legs and taloned claws, vestigial wings and a long, powerful neck. Its body was covered in bristling, hair-like feathers, like those of the emu, and its beak resembled a broad-headed spear. It had evolved at a time when birds ruled the earth and had probably existed on Madagascar for 60 million years. In spite of its fearsome appearance (the legendary roc was fierce and ate elephants), it was a herbivore.

It had little to fear from other native creatures on Madagascar; it was protected by its huge size and if needs be, could use its feet and heavy beak to protect itself in conflicts with others of its own kind. The birds resembled heavily built ostriches, with small heads, vestigial wings, and long, powerful legs. They stood 10 ft (3 metres) tall and weighed approximately 1000 lbs (455 kg); although some moas were taller, the elephant bird was more robustly built. Their eggs had a circumference of about 3 ft (91 cm), were about 13 inches (33 cm) long and a capacity of 2 imperial gallons (9 litres). This is the equivalent of 200 hen's eggs and three times the size of the eggs of the largest dinosaurs. Fossilised eggs are still found buried on the island. The photo here is of a replica exhibited at Ipswich Museum, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. The island would have supported only a small, slow-breeding population and the birds were probably driven into extinction by hunting and the theft of their eggs by humans.

The fact that it had existed for 60 million years (much longer than humans) and adapted to a changing world, shows it to have been a very successful species. However, it was also specialised to an island environment with no large predators and was, therefore, not adapted to survive contact with aggressive European humans. In 1867, Ferdinand von Hochstetter's book "New Zealand" also mentioned the Elephant Bird in Chapter IX "Kiwi and Moa, the wingless Birds of New Zealand" and suggested it still survived: The number of species living is very small. In all there are only about 12 species known; two, perhaps three species of ostrich in Africa, three cassuary [cassowary] species 1 in southern Asia, two Emu's (Dromaeus) in Australia, an East and a West Australian, three species Rhea in South America, and three or four species of Kiwi (Apteryx) in New Zealand. Among all these the African ostrich, 6 to 7 feet high, is known to be by far the largest and most numerous species.

But greater than the number of living species is the number of extinct species, which used to inhabit the islands from Madagascar to New Zealand even within the memory of man; and it is among these that we become acquainted with by far the largest representatives of the family of giant birds. Marco Polo already, in the famous account of his travels, locates the giant bird Rue of the myth upon Madagascar, and relates that the Great Khan of the Tartars having heard of this bird at the far off borders of the celestial empire, sent forthwith messengers to Madagascar. They really brought a feather back with them, 9 spans long, and 2 palms in circumference, at which His Majesty expressed his unfeigned delight. People laughed at this tale, as a fable, and like so many other relations made by Marco Polo on real facts, it was declared vain swaggering talk; - until tidings came establishing the fact, that very recently a gigantic bird was, and is still existing in Madagascar.

This happened thus: Natives of Madagascar had come to Mauritius to buy rum; the vessels they had brought with them to hold the liquor were egg-shells, eight times as large as ostrich-eggs, or 135 times the size of a hen-egg; eggs containing 2 gallons. They related that those eggs were now and then found among the reeds, and that the bird also was occasionally seen. This was not believed either until the Museum at Paris in 1851 received such an egg from a landslip in Madagascar, measuring 2 3/4 feet in circumference, and holding 2 1/2 litres; it was in a state as though it had been laid but very recently. Now Marco Polo's fabulous Rue has become the Aepiornis maximus of Madagascar. Yet that colossal egg, the casts of which are exhibited in almost every Museum in Europe, besides some fragments of bones in the British Museum, is all, that has hitherto been obtained of this bird. Whether it still lives, is uncertain. The natives assert to this day, that in the thickest forest, there still exists a giant bird; but that it is very rarely seen.

Entry for Roc in Harmsworth Natural History (1910): For a long period the marshes of Madagascar have yielded the egg-shells of enormous extinct birds, in search of which the natives are accustomed to probe with iron rods; the largest of these eggs having a longer circumference of upwards of thirty-six inches, and a girth of thirty inches. From these eggs probably arose the legend of the ï¿½rocï¿½ of the old Arab voyagers ; and it is, at any rate, convenient to adopt that name as the popular designation for the members of the family Aepyornithidae, all of which are included in the genus Aepyornis. In the course of time naturalists were rewarded by the discovery of the bones of the birds which laid these gigantic eggs; some of these remains indicating a bird of larger build than the most gigantic moa, the metatarsus being especially remarkable for its massiveness. Some of these birds appear to have had four toes, and they all differ from moas in the absence of a bony ridge at the lower end of the tibia. The skull was short and moa-like, and the wing seems to have been completely aborted.

Fossil evidence indicates several other species of elephant bird, ranging from 3 ft (90 cm) to 10 ft (3 metres), had inhabited Madagascar, though most had died out before modern humans had evolved. As well as Aepyornis, one other species, the smaller Mullerornis, probably survived into historic times. The reasons for these birds' extinction are hard to determine as there are no reliable historical records of the pre-European history of Madagascar. They were probably hunted by native people 1000-2000 years before European contact. This was probably subsistence hunting and did not threaten the birds' numbers. Egg collecting by Europeans would have been much more of a threat - such huge eggs can only be laid in small numbers and the birds probably bred slowly. Habitat destruction would have posed a grave threat to such a specialised bird. GIANT MOA Another flightless giant island-living bird was the New Zealand giant moa (Dinornis giganteus), a member of the ratite family.

There were several species of moa, some taller than the elephant bird at 7 ft (2 metres) to the middle of the back and 13 ft (4 metres) to the head (twice the height of a tall man), although their necks probably projected forwards like a kiwi rather than upwards as usually depicted. They were more lightly built than the elephant bird, but still three times the weight of a large man at up to 200 - 275 kg. The Giant Moa's eggs measured 10 inches (24 cm) long and 7 inches (18 cm wide). Females were 1.5 times the size and almost 3 times the weight of males, leading scientists the revise moa classification and the number of moa species. In the past, the males and females had been erroneously considered different species due to this size difference. The moas occupied similar niches to mammalian herbivores elsewhere. New Zealand was even more isolated than Madagascar and had no land mammals except bats. The first Polynesians arrived in New Zealand around the 10th century, becoming the Maori.

The dominant life-forms were the giant land birds that lived in the fringes of the semi-tropical forests and on the grasslands and which the Maoris called 'Moas'. Encountering the huge birds, the Maoris made legends of the giant moa, calling it the Poua-Kai and describing it as a huge bird of terrific size and strength which, in a great battle, destroyed half the warriors of a powerful tribe with its terrible rending talons and thrusting beak Moas were huge ratite 'running birds' like the Elephant Bird, but they inhabited the grasslands and forest-fringe in extraordinary numbers and variety. Scientists later gave them the family name Dinornithidae, 'terrible birds'. The aggressive Polynesian invaders became a Moa-hunting culture and for the moa, which had had no predators in 100 million years, the effect was devastating. By the time Europeans discovered the islands in 1770, the giant moas had been hunted to extinction; their official extinction date is given as 1773. Europeans did not learn of the moa's existence until bones were discovered in the 1830s.

The exact number of species is open to debate, the current belief is that there were 11 species contemporary with man and that higher counts were due to the sexual dimorphism. With only one natural predator large enough to tackle them (Haast's Eagle, another extinct giant) they were the dominant terrestrial species on the islands. Although the giant moa is the species that has captured the modern imagination, other members of the moa family were turkey-sized and weighed little over 1 kg. One striking feature of moa anatomy, apart from its height, is the complete lack of humeri (upper arm-bones). This means they had no trace of wings, not even a vestigial wing-structure. There were several families of moa. Pachyornis and Emeus were hunted to extinction by the Maoris between 1100 and 1500. The powerfully built medium-sized Euryapteryx may have survived until 1700.

Pygmy Moas, 3 -4 ft tall (90 - 120 cm) of the genera Anomalopteryx and Megalapteryx died out by 1800, hunted by both Maori and Europeans though there is evidence that one of the pygmy moas may have survived into the 20th century and may possibly still exist in the wilderness of Fiordland. By the time Europeans had realised the significance of the discovery of giant moas, the birds were almost extinct. In 1838, Englishman John Rule brought back a fragment of a huge leg-bone from New Zealand. It was investigated by palaeontologist Richard Owen in London, but even then many dismissed it as a hoax or myth. It took several more years and many more bones to convince naturalists that the moa existed. A consignment of moa bones was sent in 1843 by geologist and missionary, Revd William Williams.

He had studied the birds, and had recorded a sighting by two English whalers near Cloudy Bay, in Cook Straits in 1842: "the natives there had mentioned to an Englishman of a whaling party that there was a bird of extraordinary size to be seen only at night on the side of a hill near there; and that he, with the native and a second Englishman, went to the spot; that after waiting some time they saw the creature at some little distance, which they describe as being fourteen or sixteen feet high. One of the men proposed to go nearer and shoot, but his companion was so exceedingly terrified, or perhaps both of them, that they were satisfied with looking at him, when in a little time he took alarm and strode up the mountain." In the 1850s, New Zealand resident, John White, interviewed several sealers who claimed to have eaten moas on the South Island, indicating that some birds had survived until as late as 1850. The most detailed account of giant moas came from an old Maori on South Island, who described the birds' appearance, habitat, feeding and nesting habits.

He Maori described how fierce, booming male moas, guarded nesting females. He also described how the birds were hunted and eaten. Another Maori moa hunter described how the moa defended itself by kicking. Their eggs were taken as food and as curios by Europeans. In 1865, a moa egg containing an embryo was discovered near Cromwell. Entry for Moa in Harmsworth Natural History (1910): The fate impending in the case of the kiwis has long since overtaken their gigantic extinct cousins the moas (family Dinornithidae), which had already disappeared from New Zealand when those islands were first colonised from Europe, although there is good reason to believe that they lived on till within the last five hundred or four hundred years, if not to a considerably later date. These birds, of which not only the bones, but in some cases the dried skin, feathers, and egg-shells, as well as the pebbles they were in the habit of swallowing, have been preserved in the superficial deposits of New Zealand, attained a wonderful development in those islands, where they were secure from persecution till man appeared on the scene.

Not only did the larger members of the group far exceed the ostrich in size, but they were extraordinarily numerous in species, as they were also in individuals; such a marvellous exuberance of gigantic bird-life being unknown elsewhere on the face of the globe in such a small area. As regards size, the largest moas could have been but little short of 12 feet in height, the tibia being considerably over a yard in length; while the smallest were not larger than a turkey. In reference to their numbers, it may be mentioned that there are some twenty species, arranged in about six genera; and the surface of many parts of the country, as well as bogs and swamps, literally swarmed with their bones. Some of the moas had four toes to the foot, and others three, but all differed from kiwis in having a bony ridge over the groove for the extensor tendons of the tibia. They are, therefore, evidently the least specialised members of the order yet mentioned, seeing that this bridge is present in the majority of flying birds, and has evidently been lost in all the existing Ratitae.

While agreeing in some parts of their organisation with kiwis, moas are distinguished by the short beak and the presence of after-shafts to the feathers while in the larger forms, at any rate, not only was the wing, but likewise the whole shoulder-girdle, wanting. There is, however, reason to believe that certain pigmy moas - which from their size were evidently the most generalised members of the group - retained some of the bones connected with the wing. Moas were represented by several very distinct structural modifications; the largest being the long-legged, or true, moas (Dinornis) , characterised by the long and comparatively slender leg-bones, and also the large and depressed skulls. In marked contrast to these were the short-legged, or elephant-footed, moas (Pachyornis), in which the limb-bones are remarkable for their short and massive form; the metatarsus being most especially noteworthy in this respect. In these birds the skull is vaulted and the beak narrow and sharp; but in the somewhat smaller and less stoutly-limbed-broad-billed moas (Emeus) it is broad, blunt, and rounded.

The other species, in all of which the beak was sharp and narrow, are of relatively small stature, and include the smallest representatives of the family, some of which were less than a yard in height. The eggs of the moas were of a pale green colour, and probably formed a favourite food of the Maori, by whom these birds wcre evidently exterminated. Several skeletons are on display in museums in New Zealand and Europe and there are models and reconstructions based on these skeletons, on naturally preserved feathers and on oral tales of the bird and on its smaller relative, the kiwi. It is believed that moas resembled kiwis in several ways, that they were communal living and that the eggs were brooded by the males. With no need to look out for predators, their heads were probably carried forwards, like the kiwi, rather than upwards like an ostrich. Another island giant, the Tasmanian emu, has been extinct since the 1850s on Tasmania and since the 1830s on Kangaroo Island (a 90 mile x 35 mile island; 144 km x 56 km).

Unlike New Zealand, Australia had a variety of marsupial mammals and birds did not become the dominant life form. The Tasmanian emu was smaller than the Australian emu and was extinct by 1850. The Tasmanian dwarf emu was wiped out by 1830. Both were wiped out by man and by bush fires started by man. Kangaroo Island was discovered in 1802 and settled by whalers and sealers. Its emus were wiped out within 30 years. Australian emus survive on the Australian mainland in spite of extensive hunting between the 1920s and 1940s. In 1867, Ferdinand von Hochstetter's book "New Zealand" described the Moa at length in Chapter IX "Kiwi and Moa, the wingless Birds of New Zealand". Below are excerpts describing the birds and their extermination. The Kiwi, however, is only the last and rather insignificant representative of the family of wingless birds that inhabited New Zealand in bygone ages.

By the term "Moa" the natives signify a family of birds, that we know merely from bones and skeletons, a family of real giant-birds compared with the little Apterygides. Missionaries were the first that beared from the natives of those gigantic birds, against which the ancestors of the present Maoris had been engaged in fearful struggles. The natives even pointed out a Totara tree on Lake Rotorua as the place, where their ancestors slew the last Moa, and in order to corroborate the truth of their narrative they showed large bones, which they found scattered on the banks of rivers, on the sea-coast, in swamps and limestone-caves, as the remains of those extinct giant-birds. In 1839, Mr. Rule brought to England a fragment of a thigh bone of a Moa, from which Professor Richard Owen drew up a wonderfully correct idea of the bird. Almost at the same time the Rev. Mr. Colenso described in the Tasmanian Journal Moa-bones as the remains of gigantic birds. These facts excited interest and caused fresh researches, in consequence of which the Missionary, the Rev. W.

Williams in 1842 sent several chests full of such bones, - which had been gathered on North Island in the coast districts about Poverty Bay and Hawkes' Bay, - to Dr. Buckland. Dr. Buckland presented the treasures to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Prof. Owen constructed out of them the gigantic legs of Dinornis giganteus, which are one of the greatest curiosities of said Museum, legs over 5 feet high, which intimate a bird of at least 9 and a half feet in height. This is by far the most colossal from all the birds known. The tibia, the shin-bone alone, measures 2 feet 10 inches. Upon South Island it was Mr. Percy Earl and Dr. Mackellar, who made collections at the mouth of the Waikouaiti, North of the Otago peninsula. But by far the most copious harvest was that gathered by Mr. Walther Mantell in the years 1847-1850 upon North and South Islands. He had collected more than 1000 separate bones and also fragments of eggs, which were bought by the British Museum, and furnished Prof.

Owen the rich material for this celebrated works on the extinct families of Dinornis and Palapteryx. In this collection there was the famous skeleton of the elephant-footed Moa (Dinornis elephantopus) from Ruamoa, three; miles South of Oamaru Point (First Rocky Head), Province Otago, a species, which while it fell far short of the height of Dinornis giganteus, - measuring hardly over 5 feet, - was distinguished by an extraordinarily massive construction of the bones, and, as Mr. Owen says and indicates by the nomenclature, of all birds represents most the type of the pachyderms. Very appropriately, therefore, this skeleton has been placed in the British Museum by the side of the gigantic elephant Mastodon ohioticus. Colonel Wakefield, Dr. Thomson and many others have also made up collections partly on North, and partly on South Island, and according to Prof. Owen there are already 12 to 14 different species of Moas known. Most of them have three toes like the Australian Emu. These Prof.

Owen classes with the genus Dinornis, the four-toed species with the genus Palapteryx. From smaller bones, which were found, the genus Aptornis was established. However, the whole family of those wingless birds seems to have been very variable, since nearly every individual found, varied not only in size, but also in the number and proportion of the bones (especially of the vertebrae). It is, therefore, very doubtful, whether all the species, distinguished by Prof. Owen, are good species. Besides bones, there were also fragments of egg-shells found on North and South Islands, indicating eggs of a size much larger than ostrich-eggs, but not quite equal in size to the egg of Aepiornis maximus [Elephant Bird], and of a thin shell with linear furrows. In 1865, Mr. J. C. Stevens, Natural History Agent in London, received from New Zealand an almost perfect egg of Dinornis. The egg is about ten inches in length and seven inches in breadth, the shell being of a dirty brownish colour, and about 1/12th of an inch in thickness.

[...] Besides bones and eggs, little heaps of small rounded stones are very frequently found, generally chalcedony, carnelions, opals, and achates, which are designated by the natives as "Moa stones". They are sometimes found together with Moa skeletons, partly also in places, where there are no traces of Moa bones. It is probably correct to suppose that those stones come from the stomach of the birds, which like the ostrich and the Australian Emu were in the habit of swallowing little stones to assist digestion, ejecting them again from time to time, in order to swallow others less rounded. From the localities of Moa bones, hitherto discovered, it appears first, that those birds were distributed over North Island, as well as South Island. Yet, as the Apteryx species of the two islands are different, so also the Moa species of North Island seem to be different from those found on South Island. Cook Strait, now separating the two islands, may have proved to these birds, which could neither fly nor swim, an unsurmountable obstacle, preventing them from migrating from one island to the other. New Zealand was perhaps a large continent when the Moas were first created.

And if we suppose this or at least that the two islands were formerly contiguous to each other, we of course suppose also, that the separation took place so long a time ago, that the originally identical species, after the separation of both islands, may have been changed in course of time into the present varieties or species. According to Prof. Owen, the birds of South Island present stouter proportions, a compact, rather bulky frame of body, such as Dinornis robustus, elephantopus, crassus, and Palapteryx ingens, while those of North Island are distinguished by more slender and lengthy forms, like the Dinornis giganteus and gracilis. These various species inhabited the plains and valleys and had their hiding-places in forests and caves. Their food doubtless consisted of vegetables, especially fern-roots, which they dug up with their powerful feet and claws. To assist the process of digestion, they swallowed small pebbles. According to native tradition, Moas were decked with gaudy plumage; and the present New Zealanders describe a cochin-china fowl as what they conceive lo have been the shape and the appearance of Moas.

The formation of the skull leads us to infer, that they were stupid, clumsy birds, which we must not suppose to have been swift runners like the ostrich, but sluggish diggers of the ground, the nature and habits of which demanded no larger scope, than such as the limited territory of New Zealand presented. From the traditions of the natives it appears, that great numbers of Moas were still living upon the islands at the time when they were first populated, and that the last of those birds probably disappeared from the surface of the earth but a few generations ago. It is even rumoured in the colony and is certainly not utterly impossible, that in unaccessible solitudes there might still be some few living stragglers of that giant-family "the last of the Mohicans".

However, I am not inclined to believe the stories of the natives, that Heretaunga in the vicinity of Ahuriri on the East Coast of North Island or Whakapunake on Poverty Bay is the haunt of the last living Moas; and I likewise discredit the assertions of American sailors and seal-hunters, who pretend to have seen monster-birds of 14 or 16 and even of 20 feet in height stalking to and fro on Cloudy Bay and on the inhospitable southwestern shores of South Island. And certainly it is a remarkable fact, that in those extensive, wholly uninhabited regions of the Southern Alps, which within the last years have been explored, no reliable traces could be found anywhere. It is therefore my opinion, that all the larger species are wholly extinct, and that the above mentioned Roa-roa (Apteryx maxima) is probably the largest living representative of the former giant-family. To the question about the causes of the dying out of those gigantic birds, we must necessarily connect the question about the causes of the final extermination of other large animals of the present period.

[...] There are many facts, showing that in the struggle for existence, man acts the main part; that man has already swept quite a number of species from the surface of the earth, and that it is chiefly the largest animals that first succumb. We may even say, that all the larger animals are gradually being exterminated excepting those, which as domestic animals save their existence merely by their absolute dependence on man. The reasons for this arc quite obvious. The animal is either useful or noxious to man. If it be a large animal, its useful or noxious qualities are the greater; and in both cases man will strive to kill the beast, either in order to secure to himself the benefits of it, or to avert the great damage. This struggle of extermination will last a longer or shorter time, according to the number of individuals engaged, or, - since in the case of large animals, it can be only comparatively small upon a given space, - in proportion to the greater or smaller area of distribution of the animals in question. The huge animals once populating the forests of Europe, furnish a great many examples and proofs, too well known to require any further explanation.

I will mention only two facts to show, how rapidly often the struggle is brought to a close with species having only a very limited range of distribution, how little there remains of such animals exterminated by the hand of man, and how fast every thing relating thereto is forgotten. [...]Nor is it to be doubted, that the extermination of the gigantic birds of New Zealand was chiefly accomplished by the hand of man. In briefly retracing the past to the times when New Zealand was not yet trodden by the foot of man, we must assume, that at that time the large Dinornis and Apteryx species, whose bones we find to-day, lived in great numbers upon open fern-land, subsisting on the roots of Pteris esculenta. Dr. J. Haast notices also the occurrence of bones of the Dinornis in the moraines of the glaciers of South Island, and observes that the present Alpine flora furnished a large quantity of nutritious food quite capable of sustaining the life even of so large a creature; and as the fruits of these plants seem at present to serve no evident purpose in the economy of nature, he argued the former existence of an adequate amount of animal life, to prevent an excessive development of vegetation.

This part was played by the Dinornis. Those huge birds were then the only large animal beings that populated New Zealand; for of indigenous mammalia, except a little rat, there is nothing known. The first immigrants, who throughout the whole length and breadth of the extensive forests found nothing for man to subsist on, except the native rat and some small birds, obtained from the giant-birds the necessary supplies of meat, enabling them to increase in course of time to a whole nation numbering hundreds of thousands. But for those colossal birds, it would be indeed utterly impossible to comprehend, how 200,000 or 300,000 human beings could have lived in New Zealand, a country which even in its vegetable world offered nothing for subsistence, except fern-roots. That such was really the case is sufficiently proven in the traditions of the natives. Ngahue, one of the discoverers of New Zealand, -- so tradition says, -- describes the land as the haunt of colossal birds. There are yet some Maori poems extant, in which the father gives his son instructions how to behave in the contests with the Moas, how to hunt and kill them.

The feasts are described, which were wont to be instituted after a successful chase. Mr. Cormack as well as Mr. Mantell have found the bones on both the North and the South Islands in great number in the vicinity of camping-grounds and fire-places of the natives. Mounds were found full of such bones, in which after great feasts the remnants of the meals were promiscuously interred. The flesh and eggs were eaten; the feathers were employed as ornament for the hair; the skulls were used for holding tattooing powder; the bones were converted into fish-hooks, and the colossal eggs were buried with the dead as provision during their long last journey to the lower regions. Consequently those huge birds were in former times the principal game of the natives, and were probably altogether exterminated in the course of a few centuries. Footnote: Dr. Thomson believes, that the Moas have become extinct since the middle of the 17th century. Meurant, a seal-hunter, according to a communication of the Rev. Mr.

Taylor (New Zealand Magaz., April 1850), asserts his having seen Moa bones with the flesh on in Molyneux Harbour, South Island, as late as 1823. At any rate, natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, conflagrations of woods and heaths are likewise very probable to have contributed to the diminishing of the Moa family. In the swamp near Waikouaiti in South Island, Moa feet and legs have been found in an erect position, and the extraordinary number of Moa bones found in swamps is probably to be explained in this manner, that large flocks of those birds driven by fire or by men, got lost in the swamps and perished there. Dr. Haast very recently had the good fortune to make a most extraordinary discovery of that kind. A swamp near the Glenmark home station (Province Canterbury) has long been celebrated for the quantity of Moa bones that have been found there. Dr. Haast found no less than twenty-five skeletons of the Dinornis elephantopus and Dinornis crassus, of different ages. The bones were in excellent preservation and perfect condition.

They retain the usual proportion of animal matter, and have undergone no mineral change. It is evident from these and similar discoveries that the birds of the elephantopus and crassus species congregated together in flocks, while the more monstrous specimen known as Dinornis giganteus must have been a comparatively solitary bird, as the bones of this class are scarce, and never found in any numbers in one spot. Bronzebeak Moa (MTG Card) Bronzebeak Moa Creature — Bird Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Bronzebeak Moa gets +3/+3 until end of turn. Add to collection A Kubricky Project 1 week ago Nice, when I first saw you pull Bronzebeak Moa I immediately thought tokens. Looks like you had the same idea lol. Beck could work for draw and tokens. Emeria Angel is a decent option as well. It's looking good though. Moa could get out of control fast! Rhys back at it again in the woods 2 months ago I'd suggest running Bronzebeak Moa , it's a great way to finish people off and it's budget.

(and no one expects it!) TheMuffinMTG on 10 months ago Login to quickly add this card to your collections. Close Moa | All Birds Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [2] The moa [3] [4] were nine species (in six genera) of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand . [5] The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about 3.6 m (12 ft) in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about 230 kg (510 lb). [6] When polynesians first migrated to New Zealand about 1280 the moa population was estimated at 58,000. [7] Moa belong to the order Dinornithiformes, traditionally placed in the ratite group. [5] However, their closest relatives have been found by genetic studies to be the flighted South American tinamous , once considered to be a sister group to ratites. [8] The nine [5] species of moa were the only wingless birds, lacking even the vestigial wings which all other ratites have.

They were the dominant herbivores in New Zealand's forest, shrubland and subalpine ecosystems for thousands of years, and until the arrival of the Māori were hunted only by the Haast's eagle . It is generally considered that most, if not all, species of moa died out by 1400 CE due to overhunting by the Māori and habitat decline. The last moa died between 1440 and 1445 according to a new 2014 study from Land Care Research. [9] Contents File:Dinornithidae SIZE 01.png Although moa skeletons were traditionally reconstructed in an upright position to create impressive height, analysis of their vertebral articulation indicates that they probably carried their heads forward, [10] in the manner of a kiwi . The spine was attached to the rear of the head rather than the base, indicating the horizontal alignment. This would have allowed them to graze on low-elevation vegetation, while being able to lift their heads and browse trees when necessary. This has resulted in a reconsideration of the height of larger moa.

Although there is no surviving record of what sounds moa made, some idea of their calls can be gained from fossil evidence. The trachea of moa were supported by many small rings of bone known as tracheal rings. Excavation of these rings from articulated skeletons has shown that at least two moa genera (Euryapteryx and Emeus) exhibited tracheal elongation, that is, their trachea were up to 1 metre (3 ft) long and formed a large loop within the body cavity. [10] These are the only ratites known to exhibit this feature, which is also present in several other bird groups including swans , cranes , and guinea fowl . The feature is associated with deep, resonant vocalisations that can travel long distances. Evolutionary relationships File:Kiwi, ostrich, Dinornis.jpg Research published starting in 2010 has found that the moa's closest cousins are small terrestrial South American birds called the tinamous which are able to fly.

[8] [11] [12] [13] Previously, the kiwi , the Australian emu , and cassowary [14] were thought to be most closely related to the moa. Although dozens of species were described in the late 19th century and early 20th century, many were based on partial skeletons and turned out to be synonyms . Currently, eleven species are formally recognised, although recent studies using ancient DNA recovered from bones in museum collections suggest that distinct lineages exist within some of these. One factor that has caused much confusion in moa taxonomy is the intraspecific variation of bone sizes, between glacial and inter-glacial periods (see Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule ) as well as sexual dimorphism being evident in several species. Dinornis seems to have had the most pronounced sexual dimorphism , with females being up to 150% as tall and 280% as heavy as males—so much bigger that they were formerly classified as separate species until 2003. [15] [16] A 2009 study showed that Euryapteryx curtus and Euryapteryx gravis were synonyms.

[16] A 2010 study explained size differences among them as sexual dimorphism. [17] A 2012 morphological study interpreted them as subspecies instead. [18] Ancient DNA analyses have determined that there were a number of cryptic evolutionary lineages in several moa genera. [19] These may eventually be classified as species or subspecies; Megalapteryx benhami (Archey) which is synonymised with M. didinus (Owen) because the bones of both share all essential characters. Size differences can be explained by a north-south cline combined with temporal variation such that specimens were larger during the Otiran glacial period (the last ice age in New Zealand). Similar temporal size variation is known for the North Island Pachyornis mappini. [20] Some of the other size variation for moa species can probably be explained by similar geographic and temporal factors. [21] Classification Euryapteryx curtus Because moa are a group of flightless birds with no vestiges of wing bones, questions have been raised about how they arrived in New Zealand, and from where.

There are many theories about the moa's arrival and radiation on New Zealand, but the most recent theory suggests that the moa arrived on New Zealand about 60 Mya and split from the basal moa species, Megalapteryx about 5.8 Mya [23] instead of the 18.5 Mya split suggested by Baker et al. (2005). This does not necessarily mean there was no speciation between the arrival 60 Mya and the basal split 5.8 Mya, but the fossil record is lacking and is it most likely that early moa lineages existed but went extinct before the basal split 5.8 Mya. [24] The Oligocene drowning maximum about 22 Mya, when only 18% of present-day New Zealand was above sea level, is very important in the moa radiation. Because the basal moa split occurred so recently (5.8 Mya), it was argued that ancestors of the Quaternary moa lineages could not have been present on both the South and North island remnants during the Oligocene drowning.

[25] This does not imply that moa were previously absent from the North Island, but that only those from the South Island survived, because only the South Island was above sea level. Bunce et al. (2009) argued that moa ancestors survived on the South Island and then recolonized the North Island about 2 My later, when the two islands rejoined after 30 My of separation. [16] Bunce et al. also concluded that the highly complex structure of the moa lineage was caused by the formation of the Southern Alps about 6 Mya, and the habitat fragmentation on both islands resulting from Pleistocene glacial cycles, volcanism , and landscape changes. Distribution and habitat Analyses of fossil moa bone assemblages have provided detailed data on the habitat preferences of individual moa species, and revealed distinctive regional moa faunas: [10] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] South Island File:Giant moa.jpg The two main faunas identified in the South Island include: 1.

The fauna of the high rainfall west coast beech ( Nothofagus ) forests that included Anomalopteryx didiformis (bush moa) and Dinornis robustus (South Island giant moa); and 2. The fauna of the dry rainshadow forest and shrublands east of the Southern Alps that included Pachyornis elephantopus (heavy-footed moa), Euryapteryx gravis, Emeus crassus and Dinornis robustus. The two other moa species that existed in the South Island; Pachyornis australis and Megalapteryx didinus might be included in a ‘ subalpine fauna’, along with the widespread Dinornis robustus. P. australis is the rarest of the moa species, and the only one yet to have been found in Maori middens. Its bones have been found in caves in the northwest Nelson and Karamea districts (such as Honeycomb Hill Cave ), and some sites around the Wanaka district. M. didinus is more widespread. Its name "upland moa" reflects the fact its bones are commonly found in the subalpine zone.

However, it also occurred down to sea level where there was suitable steep and rocky terrain (such as Punakaiki on the west coast and Central Otago ). North Island Significantly less is known about North Island paleofaunas, due to a paucity of fossil sites compared to the South Island; however, the basic pattern of moa-habitat relationships was the same. [10] Although the South Island and the North Island shared some moa species (Euryapteryx gravis, Anomalopteryx didiformis), most were exclusive to one island, reflecting divergence over several thousand years since lower sea level had resulted in a land bridge across Cook Strait . In the North Island, Dinornis novaezealandiae and Anomalopteryx didiformis dominated in high rainfall forest habitat; a similar pattern to the South Island. The other moa species present in the North Island (Euryapteryx gravis, E. curtus, and Pachyornis geranoides) tended to inhabit drier forest and shrubland habitats. P. geranoides occurred throughout the North Island, while the distributions of E. gravis and E.

curtus were almost mutually exclusive, the former having only been found in coastal sites around the southern half of the North Island. [10] Behaviour and ecology File:Moa footprints.jpg Approximately eight moa trackways , with fossilised moa footprint impressions in fluvial silts have been found throughout the North Island, including Waikanae Creek (1872), Napier (1887), Manawatu River (1895), Marton (1896), Palmerston North (1911) (see photograph to left), Rangitikei River (1939), and underwater in Lake Taupo (1973). Analysis of the spacing of these tracks indicate walking speeds of between 3 and 5 km/h (1.75–3 mph). [10] Diet File:Dinornis giganteus.jpg Although feeding moa were never observed by scientists, their diet has been deduced from fossilised contents of their gizzards [32] [33] and coprolites , [34] as well as indirectly through morphological analysis of skull and beak, and stable isotope analysis of their bones.

[10] Moa fed on a range of plant species and plant parts, including fibrous twigs and leaves taken from low trees and shrubs. The beak of Pachyornis elephantopus was analogous to a pair of secateurs , and was able to clip the fibrous leaves of New Zealand flax ( Phormium tenax) and twigs up to at least 8 mm in diameter. [33] Like many other birds, moa swallowed gizzard stones ( gastroliths ), which were retained in their muscular gizzards, providing a grinding action that allowed them to eat coarse plant material. These stones were commonly smooth, rounded quartz pebbles, but stones over 110 millimetres (4 in) in length have been found amongst preserved moa gizzard contents. [33] Dinornis gizzards could often contain several kilograms of stones. [10] Reproduction It has been long suspected that the pairs of species of moa described as Euryapteryx curtus/E. exilis, Emeus huttonii/E. crassus, and Pachyornis septentrionalis/P. mappini constituted males and females, respectively.

This has been confirmed by analysis for sex-specific genetic markers of DNA extracted from bone material. [15] For example, prior to 2003 there were three species of Dinornis recognised: South Island giant moa (D. robustus), North Island giant moa (D. novaezealandiae) and slender moa (D. struthioides). However, DNA showed that all D. struthioides were in fact males, and all D. robustus were females. Therefore the three species of Dinornis were reclassified as two species, one each formerly occurring on New Zealand 's North Island (D. novaezealandiae) and South Island (D. robustus); [15] [35] D. robustus however, comprises three distinct genetic lineages and may eventually be classified as many species, as discussed above. Examination of growth rings present in moa cortical bone has revealed that these birds were K-selected , as are many other large endemic New Zealand birds. [14] They are characterised by having low fecundity and a long maturation period, taking approximately ten years to reach adult size.

The large Dinornis species took the same length of time to reach adult size as small moa species, and as a result had an accelerated rate of skeletal growth during their juvenile years. [14] File:Emeus egg and embryo.jpg There is no evidence to suggest that moa were colonial nesters. While evidence of moa nesting is often inferred from accumulations of eggshell fragments found in caves and rock shelters, little evidence exists of the nests themselves. Excavations of rock shelters in the eastern North Island during the 1940s uncovered moa nests, which were described as "small depressions obviously scratched out in the soft dry pumice ". [36] Moa nesting material has also been recovered from rock shelters in the Central Otago region of the South Island, where the dry climate has resulted in the preservation of plant material used to construct the nesting platform (including twigs that have been clipped by moa bills). [37] Seeds and pollen within moa coprolites found amongst the nesting material provide evidence that the nesting season was late spring to summer. [37] Fragments of moa eggshell are often encountered in archaeological sites and sand dunes around the New Zealand coast.

Thirty six whole moa eggs exist in museum collections and vary greatly in size (from 120–240 millimetres (4.7–9.4 in) in length and 91–178 millimetres (3.6–7.0 in) wide). [38] The outer surface of moa eggshell is characterised by small slit-shaped pores. The eggs of most moa species were white, although those of the upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) were blue-green. A 2010 study by Huynen et al. has found that the eggs of certain species were fragile, only around a millimeter in thickness: "Unexpectedly, several thin-shelled eggs were also shown to belong to the heaviest moa of the genera Dinornis, Euryapteryx, and Emeus, making these, to our knowledge, the most fragile of all avian eggs measured to date. Moreover, sex-specific DNA recovered from the outer surfaces of eggshells belonging to species of Dinornis and Euryapteryx suggest that these very thin eggs were likely to have been incubated by the lighter males.

The thin nature of the eggshells of these larger species of moa, even if incubated by the male, suggests that egg breakage in these species would have been common if the typical contact method of avian egg incubation was used." [39] Despite the bird's extinction, the high yield of DNA available from recovered fossilized eggs has allowed the moa to have its genome sequenced. [40] Relationship with humans Artist's rendition of a Haast's eagle attacking moa Before the arrival of human settlers, the moa's only predator was the massive Haast's eagle . The Māori arrived sometime before 1300 A.D, and all moa genera were soon driven to extinction by hunting and, to a lesser extent, by habitat reduction due to forest clearance. By A.D. 1445, all moa had become extinct, along with the Haast's Eagle which had relied on them for food. Recent research using carbon-14 dating of middens strongly suggests that the events leading to extinction took less than a hundred years, [41] rather than a period of exploitation lasting several hundred years, which is what had previously been hypothesized.

Some authors have speculated that a few Megalapteryx didinus may have persisted in remote corners of New Zealand until the 18th and even 19th centuries, but this view is not widely accepted. [42] Some Māori hunters claimed to be in pursuit of the moa as late as the 1770s. Whalers and sealers recalled seeing monstrous birds along the coast of the South Island, and in the 1820s, a man named George Pauley made an unverified claim of seeing a moa in the Otago Region of New Zealand. [43] [44] An expedition in the 1850s under Lieutenant A. Impey reported two emu-like birds on a hillside on the South Island; an 1861 story from the Nelson Examiner told of three-toed footprints measuring 36 centimetres (14 in) between Takaka and Riwaka that were found by a surveying party; and finally in 1878 the Otago Witness published an additional account from a farmer and his shepherd.

[44] An 80-year-old woman, Alice Mckenzie, claimed in 1959 that she had seen a moa in Fiordland bush in 1887, and again on a Fiordland beach when she was 17 years old. She claimed that her brother had also seen a moa on another occasion. [45] The 2014 Land Care study showed that moa all died out throughout New Zealand at the same time."Size made no difference",Land Care palaeoecologist Janet Wilmshurst said."Moa were all killed." Researchers were still unsure if Maori employed a loose "over kill" strategy or a rolling front"blitzkreig" strategy to cause extinction. [46] Surviving remains File:Dinornis1387.jpg Joel Polack , a trader who lived on the East Coast of the North Island from 1834 to 1837, recorded in 1838 that he had been shown "several large fossil ossifications" found near Mt Hikurangi.

He was certain that these were the bones of a species of emu or ostrich, noting that "the Natives add that in times long past they received the traditions that very large birds had existed, but the scarcity of animal food, as well as the easy method of entrapping them, has caused their extermination". Polack further noted that he had received reports from Māori that a "species of Struthio" still existed in remote parts of the South Island. [47] [48] Dieffenbach [49] also refers to a fossil from the area near Mt Hikurangi, and surmises that it belongs to "a bird, now extinct, called Moa (or Movie) by the natives". In 1839 John W. Harris , a Poverty Bay flax trader who was a natural history enthusiast, was given a piece of unusual bone by a Māori who had found it in a river bank. He showed the 15 centimetres (6 in) fragment of bone to his uncle, John Rule, a Sydney surgeon, who sent it to Richard Owen , who at that time was working at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London .

[44] Owen puzzled over the fragment for almost four years. He established it was part of the femur of a big animal, but it was uncharacteristically light and honeycombed. Owen announced to a skeptical scientific community and the world that it was from a giant extinct bird like an ostrich , and named it Dinornis. His deduction was ridiculed in some quarters, but was proved correct with the subsequent discoveries of considerable quantities of moa bones throughout the country, sufficient to reconstruct skeletons of the birds. [44] In July 2004, the Natural History Museum in London placed on display the moa bone fragment Owen had first examined, to celebrate 200 years since his birth, and in memory of Owen as founder of the museum. Since the discovery of the first moa bones in the late 1830s, thousands more have been found. They occur in a range of late Quaternary and Holocene sedimentary deposits, but are most common in three main types of site: caves , dunes , and swamps .

File:Graveyard 2 a.JPG Bones are commonly found in caves or ‘'tomo'’ (the Maori word for doline or sinkhole ; often used to refer to pitfalls or vertical cave shafts). The two main ways that the moa bones were deposited in such sites were: 1. birds that entered the cave to nest or escape bad weather, and subsequently died in the cave; and 2. birds that fell into a vertical shaft and were unable to escape. Moa bones (and the bones of other extinct birds) have been found in caves throughout New Zealand, especially in the limestone / marble areas of northwest Nelson, Karamea , Waitomo , and Te Anau . Moa bones and eggshell fragments sometimes occur in active coastal sand dunes, where they may erode from paleosols and concentrate in ‘ blowouts ’ between dune ridges. Many such moa bones predate human settlement, although some originate from Maori midden sites, which frequently occur in dunes near harbours and river mouths (for example the large moa hunter sites at Shag River , Otago , and Wairau Bar , Marlborough ).

File:Kapua Swamp.jpg Densely intermingled moa bones have been encountered in swamps throughout New Zealand. The most well-known example is at Pyramid Valley in north Canterbury, [50] where bones from at least 183 individual moa have been excavated. Many explanations have been proposed to account for how these deposits formed, ranging from poisonous spring waters to floods and wildfires. However the currently accepted explanation is that the bones accumulated at a slow rate over thousands of years, from birds that had entered the swamps to feed and became trapped in the soft sediment. [51] Feathers and soft tissues File:Moaupland.jpg Several remarkable examples of moa remains have been found which exhibit soft tissues ( muscle , skin , feathers ), that were preserved through desiccation when the bird died in a naturally dry site (for example, a cave with a constant dry breeze blowing through it). Most of these specimens have been found in the semi-arid Central Otago region, the driest part of New Zealand.

These include: Dried muscle on bones of a female Dinornis robustus found at Tiger Hill in the Manuherikia River Valley by gold miners in 1864 [52] (currently held by Yorkshire Museum ) Several bones of Emeus crassus with muscle attached, and a row of neck vertebrae with muscle, skin and feathers collected from Earnscleugh Cave near the town of Alexandra in 1870 [53] (currently held by Otago Museum ) An articulated foot of a male Dinornis giganteus with skin and foot pads preserved, found in a crevice on the Knobby Range in 1874 [54] (currently held by Otago Museum ) The type specimen of Megalapteryx didinus found near Queenstown in 1878 [52] (currently held by Natural History Museum , London; see photograph of foot on this page) The lower leg of Pachyornis elephantopus, with skin and muscle, from the Hector Range in 1884; [42] [54] (currently held by the Zoology Department, Cambridge University ) The complete feathered leg of a Megalapteryx

 didinus from Old Man Range in 1894 [55] (currently held by Otago Museum ) The head of a Megalapteryx didinus found near Cromwell sometime prior to 1949 [56] (currently held by the Museum of New Zealand ).

Two specimens are known from outside the Central Otago region: A complete foot of Megalapteryx didinus found in a cave on Mount Owen near Nelson in 1980s [57] (currently held by the Museum of New Zealand ) A skeleton of Anomalopteryx didiformis with muscle, skin and feather bases collected from a cave near Te Anau in 1980. [58] File:Moa foot.jpg In addition to these specimens, loose moa feathers have been collected from caves and rockshelters in the southern South Island, and based on these remains, some idea of the moa plumage has been achieved. The preserved leg of Megalapteryx didinus from the Old Man Range reveals that this species was feathered right down to the foot. This is likely to have been an adaptation to living in high altitude, snowy environments, and is also seen in the Darwin’s rhea , which lives in a similar seasonally snowy habitat. [10] Moa feathers are up to 23 centimetres (9 in) long, and a range of colours have been reported, including reddish-brown, white, yellowish and purplish.

[10] Dark feathers with white or creamy tips have also been found, and indicate that some moa species may have had plumage with a speckled appearance. [59] Claims of moa survival File:Moa mock hunt.jpg The moa is thought to be extinct , but there has been occasional speculation—since at least the late 19th century, [60] [61] and as recently as 1993 [62] [63] [64] and 2008 [65] —that some moa may still exist, particularly in the rugged wilderness of South Westland and Fiordland . Cryptozoologists and others reputedly continue to search for them, [66] but their claims and supporting evidence (such as of purported footprints [65] or blurry photos) have earned little attention from mainstream experts, and are widely considered pseudoscientific . [42] The rediscovery of the takahē in 1948 after none had been seen since 1898 showed that rare birds may exist undiscovered for a long time.

However, the takahē is a much smaller bird than the moa, and was rediscovered after its tracks were identified—yet no reliable evidence of moa tracks has ever been found, and experts still contend that moa survival is extremely unlikely, since this would involve the ground-dwelling birds living unnoticed for over five hundred years in a region visited often by hunters and hikers . [65] Potential revival The creature has frequently been mentioned as a potential candidate for revival by cloning. Its iconic status, coupled with the facts that it only became extinct a few hundred years ago and that substantial quantities of moa remains exist, mean that it is often listed alongside such creatures as the dodo as leading candidates for resurrection. [67] [68] Preliminary work involving the extraction of DNA has been undertaken by Japanese geneticist Ankoh Yasuyuki Shirota. [69] [70] Interest in the moa's potential for revival was further stirred in mid 2014 when New Zealand Member of Parliament Trevor Mallard suggested that bringing back some smaller species of moa within 50 years was a viable idea. [71] The idea was ridiculed by many, but gained support from some natural history experts.

[72] Moa in literature and culture Heinrich Harder portrayed moa being hunted by Māori in the classic German collecting cards about extinct and prehistoric animals, "Tiere der Urwelt", in the early 1900s. A poem about moa, "The Skeleton of the Great Moa in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch" by Allen Curnow, [73] was released by The 1979 Anthology of New Zealand Poetry. [74] See also

Question: A moa was what type of creature?
Answer: Bird